Lo stato canaglia

["Nello Margiotta" <animarg at tin.it>]

 From: Kim Scipes <sscipe1 at ICARUS.CC.UIC.EDU>
 Subject:      Rogue Nation
 To: LABOR-L at YORKU.CA

 Rogue Nation - Richard Du Boff

 1. In December 2001, the United States officially withdrew from the 1972
 Antiballistic Missile Treaty, gutting the landmark agreement-the first time
 in the nuclear era that the US renounced a major arms control accord.

 2. 1972 Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention ratified by 144 nations
 including the United States. In July 2001 the US walked out of a London
 conference to discuss a 1994 protocol designed to strengthen the Convention
 by providing for on-site inspections. At Geneva in November 2001, US
 Undersecretary of State John Bolton stated that "the protocol is dead," at
 the same time accusing Iraq, Iran, North Korea, Libya, Sudan, and Syria of
 violating the Convention but offering no specific allegations or supporting
 evidence.

 3. UN Agreement to Curb the International Flow of Illicit Small Arms, July
 2001: the US was the only nation to oppose it.

 4. April 2001, the US was not reelected to the UN Human Rights Commission,
 after years of withholding dues to the UN (including current dues of $244
 million)-and after having forced the UN to lower its share of the UN budget
 from 25 to 22 percent. (In the Human Rights Commission, the US stood
 virtually alone in opposing resolutions supporting lower-cost access to
 HIV/AIDS drugs, acknowledging a basic human right to adequate food, and
 calling for a moratorium on the death penalty.)

 5. International Criminal Court (ICC) Treaty, to be set up in The Hague to
 try political leaders and military personnel charged with war crimes and
 crimes against humanity. Signed in Rome in July 1998, the Treaty was
 approved by 120 countries, with 7 opposed (including the US). In October
 2001 Great Britain became the 42nd nation to sign. In December 2001 the US
 Senate again added an amendment to a military appropriations bill that
would
 keep US military personnel from obeying the jurisdiction of the proposed
 ICC.

 6. Land Mine Treaty, banning land mines; signed in Ottawa in December 1997
 by 122 nations. The United States refused to sign, along with Russia,
China,
 India, Pakistan, Iran, Iraq, Vietnam, Egypt, and Turkey. President Clinton
 rejected the Treaty, claiming that mines were needed to protect South Korea
 against North Korea's "overwhelming military advantage." He stated that the
 US would "eventually" comply, in 2006; this was disavowed by President Bush
 in August 2001.

 7. Kyoto Protocol of 1997, for controlling global warming: declared "dead"
 by President Bush in March 2001. In November 2001, the Bush administration
 shunned negotiations in Marrakech (Morocco) to revise the accord, mainly by
 watering it down in a vain attempt to gain US approval.

> 8. In May 2001, refused to meet with European Union nations to discuss,
even
 at lower levels of government, economic espionage and electronic
surveillance of phone calls, e-mail, and faxes (the US "Echelon" program),

 9. Refused to participate in Organization for Economic Co-operation and
 Development (OECD)-sponsored talks in Paris, May 2001, on ways to crack
down
 on off-shore and other tax and money-laundering havens.

 10. Refused to join 123 nations pledged to ban the use and production of
 anti-personnel bombs and mines, February 2001

 11. September 2001: withdrew from International Conference on Racism,
 bringing together 163 countries in Durban, South Africa

 12. International Plan for Cleaner Energy: G-8 group of industrial nations
 (US, Canada, Japan, Russia, Germany, France, Italy, UK), July 2001: the US
 was the only one to oppose it.

 13. Enforcing an illegal boycott of Cuba, now being made tighter. In the UN
 in October 2001, the General Assembly passed a resolution, for the tenth
 consecutive year, calling for an end to the US embargo, by a vote of 167 to
 3 (the US, Israel, and the Marshall Islands in opposition).

 14. Comprehensive [Nuclear] Test Ban Treaty. Signed by 164 nations and
 ratified by 89 including France, Great Britain, and Russia; signed by
 President Clinton in 1996 but rejected by the Senate in 1999. The US is one
 of 13 nonratifiers among countries that have nuclear weapons or nuclear
 power programs. In November 2001, the US forced a vote in the UN Committee
 on Disarmament and Security to demonstrate its opposition to the Test Ban
 Treaty.

 15. In 1986 the International Court of Justice (The Hague) ruled that the
US
 was in violation of international law for "unlawful use of force" in
 Nicaragua, through its actions and those of its Contra proxy army. The US
refused to recognize the Court's jurisdiction. A UN resolution calling for
 compliance with the Court's decision was approved 94-2 (US and Israel
voting
 no).

 16. In 1984 the US quit UNESCO (UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural
 Organization) and ceased its payments for UNESCO's budget, over the New
 World Information and Communication Order (NWICO) project designed to
lessen
 world media dependence on the "big four" wire agencies (AP, UPI, Agence
 France-Presse, Reuters). The US charged UNESCO with "curtailment of press
 freedom," as well as mismanagement and other faults, despite a 148-1 in
vote
 in favor of NWICO in the UN. UNESCO terminated NWICO in 1989; the US
 nonetheless refused to rejoin. In 1995 the Clinton administration proposed
 rejoining; the move was blocked in Congress and Clinton did not press the
 issue. In February 2000 the US finally paid some of its arrears to the UN
 but excluded UNESCO, which the US has not rejoined.

 17. Optional Protocol, 1989, to the UN's International Covenant on Civil
and
 Political Rights, aimed at abolition of the death penalty and containing a
 provision banning the execution of those under 18. The US has neither
signed
 nor ratified and specifically exempts itself from the latter provision,
 making it one of five countries that still execute juveniles (with Saudi
 Arabia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Iran, Nigeria). China abolished the
 practice in 1997, Pakistan in 2000.

 18. 1979 UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination
 against Women. The only countries that have signed but not ratified are the
 US, Afghanistan, Sao Tome and Principe.

 19. The US has signed but not ratified the 1989 UN Convention on the Rights
 of the Child, which protects the economic and social rights of children.
The
 only other country not to ratify is Somalia, which has no functioning
 government.

 20. UN International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights,
1966,
 covering a wide range of rights and monitored by the Committee on Economic,
 Social and Cultural Rights. The US signed in 1977 but has not ratified.

 21. UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of
Genocide,
 1948. The US finally ratified in 1988, adding several "reservations" to the
 effect that the US Constitution and the "advice and consent" of the Senate
 are required to judge whether any "acts in the course of armed conflict"
 constitute genocide. The reservations are rejected by Britain, Italy,
 Denmark, the Netherlands, Spain, Greece, Mexico, Estonia, and others.

 22. Is the status of "we're number one!" Rogue overcome by generous foreign
 aid to given less fortunate countries? The three best aid providers,
 measured by the foreign aid percentage of their gross domestic products,
are
 Denmark (1.01%), Norway (0.91%), and the Netherlands (0.79), The three
 worst: USA (0.10%), UK (0.23%), Australia, Portugal, and Austria (all
0.26).


 rbd / 19 Dec 01
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